Danish local and regional banks launch mobile wallet powered by Nets’ new HCE and tokenisation platform

Nordic digital payments specialist, Nets, has been selected by Danish banking collective, the BOKIS partnership, to launch a new NFC mobile wallet solution powered by its HCE and tokenisation platform. The BOKIS partnership includes 62 banks that form the small to mid-sized banks segment of the Association of Local Banks, Savings Banks and Cooperative Banks in Denmark, together with five Danish regional banks: Jyske Bank, Sydbank, Spar Nord Bank, Arbejdernes Landsbank and Nykredit Bank. The BOKIS mobile wallet solution will be available to all customers of participating banks, which collectively represent a significant proportion of Danish cardholders.

“We are excited to be the first in Denmark to announce our plans to deliver bank-issued mobile wallets from our members, providing a mobile payment solution that delivers real payment convenience to our customers,” comments Søren Nicolaisen, Managing Director, Danish Regional Bankers Association. “End users will be able to pay just by ‘tapping’ their phone at the contactless point-of-sale.”

Nets’ HCE and tokenisation platform provides Nordic banks, like those taking part in the BOKIS partnership, with an open and easily integrated transaction security capability which dramatically simplifies the process of supporting or deploying mobile payment solutions. The platform is based on internationally recognised security standards and enables banks to quickly and easily introduce HCE and tokenisation into their own mobile payment solutions, reducing time-to-market and streamlining what can be a long and complicated process.

Hans Henrik Hoffmeyer, SVP of Mobile Services area in Nets, comments: “Historically, Nets has developed and operated the financial infrastructure supporting and driving the Nordic banks’ payment solutions. We have made significant investments on behalf of our customers in becoming a token service provider (TSP), which enables Nets to provide the security services that our banking customers need to power their future mobile solutions and new mobile services. In short, we enable banks to continue ‘business as usual’ in the mobile age.”

When Danish customers perform a mobile payment with their digital wallet, Nets uses HCE and tokenisation to ensure that the transaction is handled securely. The payment credentials stored in the mobile device are replaced at the point of transmission with a unique randomly generated identifier, or token, ensuring the information exchanged between phone and terminal doesn’t contain sensitive data.

Instead, the token is sent via the terminal to Nets, which centrally exchanges it with the correct account information (PAN-number) and debits the corresponding account, similarly to when it is processing a conventional card payment. This model mimics the current tap-and-go payment that consumers experience today with their contactless cards.

Tokenisation is quickly becoming the new industry standard and is currently the most widely used model to facilitate secure mobile payments globally by international mobile payment providers. Samsung Pay and Android Pay additionally use HCE to allow for secure storing of payment information. HCE and tokenisation together provide the technology platform used to support the domestic scheme in Denmark, Dankort, which will be available on the mobile this autumn.